Like a ghost ship Stephan felt lost and at sea. But he says thanks to Connecting Home, he has been found.
Stephan was a chef working in restaurants throughout the Gold Coast for more than 10 years, a career he says he loved. He then moved to Parramatta and while working in another restaurant, everything changed. Stephan says the gas he had inhaled for over a decade at work had left him with collapsed lungs and the start of a terminal cancer diagnosis.
“I’d been cooking for 10 years or something – that’s a lot of gas. It’s got no oxygen left once it’s burnt in the kitchen. And my lungs collapsed when I was working at Parramatta. That was the start of my sickness. Oxygen was blocked from circulating to my brain and damaged it.”
“I was sleeping 23 hours a day and then I was only awake one hour a day because the oxygen was too low.” Then Stephan slipped into a coma.
When he awoke years later, he learned he had been diagnosed with both Stage 4 Lung Cancer and Schizophrenia, and that he was homeless.
The medical team at the time told him he was not treatable and gave him less than six months to live.
Homeless and lost, Stephan recalled happy times during his childhood on holiday in Byron Bay and Brunswick Heads and figured, if he was going to die, it may as well be somewhere he was happy.
Stephan survived beyond the doctor’s prognosis but being homeless in Byron Bay is just as challenging as homelessness anywhere, and he recalls how frightening those years of sleeping rough were.
“It was scary. Some nights you’d worry about where you were camping; you’d worry about other people or something happening,” he said. “And the weather, the weather was a big worry because you didn’t want it raining or anything like that while you were camping.”
Luckily, he met a program worker from Social Futures Connecting Home Adult Team who put Stephan on the Byron Bay By Name List and on the Byron Bay End Rough Sleepers list.
Stephan was introduced to Fletcher Street Cottage where for the first time in a long time he had a decent meal and engaged with a newfound love of Art Therapy.
When a room in Social Futures emergency accommodation in Byron Bay came vacant 3 years ago, Stephan moved in and stayed for 6 months. Social Futures connected him to the Byron Bay Mental Health Team who worked with Stephan to stabilise his mental health.
Watch Stephan’s video clip here
Stephan sought treatment for his cancer and was more determined than ever to find a house to call his home forever. Social Futures Connecting Home program placed him into Transitional Housing in Byron Bay in late 2022 and his Program Worker, Christian McDonald, recognised Stephan’s need for NDIS access.
“When I met Stephan, he had no capacity. He couldn’t even walk 200 metres,” Christian said. “He spent his life sitting on a couch, unable to move.”
Christian linked Stephan in with a variety of support services including health and cancer support, NDIS support, and local community services. With his health starting to improve, Christian then set about finding Stephan permanent housing and in collaboration with Northern Rivers Housing, he managed to secure a forever home in January this year.
“I will never forget handing him the keys,” Christian said. “He had a new light in his eyes, and he was so happy when he found out he was living close to people he knew from the transitional accommodation. He said to me, ‘It’s like a family. I am finally home’.”
Further good news arrived in the form of donated furniture from the Uniting Church.
“When Christian became my case manager, everything started to improve in a big way” Stephan said. “Being here, I feel relaxed. I don’t have to worry at night-time. And I’ve got neighbours that say hello and pop in, and we have a meal or something like that and watch a movie. So, it’s good,” Stephan said.
Christian believes the incredible outcomes for Stephan were made possible through the collaboration of multiple organisations – Social Futures, End Rough Sleepers Coordination, Northern Rivers Housing, NDIS and Fletcher Street Cottage – and that with a forever home and wrap around supports, Stephan will now have a place to live out the rest of his life with dignity.
“One day Stephan handed me a postcard,” recalls Christian, “it had a picture of a ghost ship lost off Brunswick Heads. Stephan said that he was lost too, and thanks to Social Futures he was found.”
Social Futures Connecting Home Program supports people across the Northern Rivers who are homeless, or at risk of homelessness, to identify and source sustainable housing. Connecting Home is proudly funded by the NSW Department of Communities and Justice. Call Social Futures on 1800 719 625.
